Chapter 17
“Top down?” Izuku asked as they stood outside the villain's hideout that they would be having their battle against Iida and Uraraka.
“Check your visor.” Tanya said and looked up at the building. She used a viewing spell and smiled.
“Okay, top floor. Rear corner. We can assault by the stairs or the windows behind them.” Izuku said.
“Or...” Tanya turned to hug him close and whispered in his ear.
“Oh, that's just evil.” Izuku said with a chuckle.
“That's me. Tanya the Evil.” Tanya said with her trademark manic grin.
*
Uraraka floated off of the floor, fully prepared to fly and assault anyone coming in through the windows. She lightly played with the manoeuvring controls and was delighted that they actually worked much better than Izuku and Tanya had said. Her oversized gauntlets held ten canisters of compressed air that could shoot her in any direction she wanted, practically instantly.
The buzzer to start rang through the building and she tensed.
“Get ready for anything.” Iida said. “As villains, we need to be prepared for them to get the jump on us.”
“You've got the door and the stairs, I've got the windows. There's no way they can approach us without us knowing about it.” Uraraka said.
*WHOOMP!* *WHOOMP!* *CRASH-KOOOM!*
“AHHHH!” Uraraka and Iida yelled at the same time as the entire middle of the ceiling exploded downwards and became nothing but dust.
Izuku landed in a superhero pose to stop his momentum and slowly stood up. “It's over, villains!”
“Never, hero!” Uraraka shouted, getting into her role, and used up half of a canister of air as she launched herself forward like a bullet.
Izuku tried to dodge before she reached him and almost succeeded.
“Got you!” Uraraka exclaimed as her hand slapped Izuku's butt in the middle of his lunge to the side. She secretly loved the feeling and blushed a little at getting to touch him.
Izuku let out a yelp and became weightless, then Uraraka's momentum from the slap flipped him over and he started to drift slowly in the air.
“Good one, Uraraka! Your villainy knows no bounds!” Iida said and pulled out the roll of capture tape as his engines revved. “I'll have him tied up in less than a second!”
Uraraka had to use another half canister of air to stop herself before she hit the wall and ignored Iida's posturing.
Two shots rang out with a metal clang and Iida skidded to a stop just after he started to run. He looked down and saw that he had two circular dents in his metal boots where his toes were. It took him a second before he realized that really, really hurt!
“Oooowwwwuuuuu!” Iida yelled and started hopping around as he tried to unstrap his boots.
“Iida!” Uraraka exclaimed and cancelled her own weightlessness to go help her teammate. She had just knelt to help with a strap when she heard a voice behind her.
“Checkmate!” Izuku said as another shot rang out and he zoomed past them. He twisted in mid-air and floated right over to the bomb and gripped it with a hand.
“HEROES WIN!” All Might said over the speakers and another buzzer sounded.
Tanya floated down through the hole and saw Izuku hanging upside down from the top of the bomb. “Technically, that shouldn't count.”
Izuku laughed and pushed off to hit the ceiling and he pushed off from there to float down to her. Tanya caught his hand and pulled him in close to hold him steady.
“It's a little weird that I get to hold onto you like this.” Tanya whispered to him.
“Not to me.” Izuku lightly caressed her face. “It feels wonderful.”
Tanya blushed a little. “Stop that.”
“No.” Izuku said and his thumb lightly rubbed her cheek as his hand cupped the side of her face.
“If you two are done making googly-eyes at each other, Iida's in pain here!” Uraraka spat.
“Oh, right.” Tanya said and walked over to her with a weightless Izuku floating like a balloon in her hand. “Sorry about that, Iida. It was the quickest way to disable your speed quirk.”
“Uraraka, let me down.” Izuku said and the girl pressed her hands together to release him. He dropped several inches to the floor and knelt beside Iida. He easily found the clasps and popped the boy's armor off of his legs and then slipped off his armored shoes.
Tanya hovered a hand over Iida's feet and nodded. “They're only bruised and nothing's broken.”
“It felt like they were!” Iida said and then sighed as Tanya used her healing spell on him. “Thanks.”
“Now that we've seen your armor, we have a few redesigns for you.” Izuku said as he used his fingers to pop the metal back out to the right shape as if it was nothing.
Iida stared at him as he did the other metal shoe. “You're really strong.”
“Bending metal this weak and light? Ha!” Izuku said and put the shoes back on him. “I practice with discarded rebar at construction sites. With the foreman's permission of course.”
“That he saves a ton of money also helps. He can reuse the ones Izuku straightens.” Tanya said.
“That, too.” Izuku said and helped Iida put his leg armor back on.
“Wait a second! How did you zoom past me? I left you hanging nowhere near the walls.” Uraraka said.
“With this.” Izuku pulled out a toy pistol. “Every action requires an equal and opposite reaction.”
“You shot the gun to propel yourself!” Uraraka said, astonished. “That's so cool!”
Izuku handed the pistol back to Tanya, who checked it over, nodded, and slipped it into her left hip holster.
“Come on, we need to get back to the control room.” Iida said and they all started walking. “What are the design changes my armor needs?”
“If it's supposed to protect you and not just look cool, you should look into better composites of metals for strength and toughness. Maybe even some carbon fibre linings. It's a lot more expensive, though.” Izuku said. “Also, you need to have strategic angles mounted on it.”
“What he's not saying is that the right angles will deflect things off rather than letting the entire force of something hit you directly.” Tanya said. “If you had part of a triangle shape on the top of your boots, my shots to crush the metal onto your toes would have been reduced to less than half as effective.”
Iida thought about that and had to agree. If his boots hadn't been flat, her single shots wouldn't have incapacitated him so quickly. “I would be happy to brainstorm with you about your ideas.”
Uraraka turned slightly and slapped Izuku's shoulder. “What did I give you this morning?”
“Oh! Right.” Izuku said and then sighed. “We won't be doing that without consulting with the UA support company first.”
Tanya barked a laugh. “Thanks, Uraraka. He needed someone other than me to get some sense knocked into his head about certain things.”
Uraraka laughed, too. “You two did so much for me already that I'm glad I could help.”
They entered the control room and almost everyone there clapped, even All Might.
“That was a masterful play on all of your parts. Well done!” All Might said. “Does anyone have ideas on the MVP?”
“Izuku.” Most of the other students said as one.
“Why is that?” All Might asked.
“He was both the distraction and the main aggressor to get to the bomb.” A dark-haired girl with earphone jacks as earlobes said. “Tanya couldn't have done it. She also stayed as a support role and didn't deviate or tried to hog the spotlight, which worked out well.”
“Excellent points Jiro!” All Might said. “Anyone else?”
“She kind of made my argument for Tanya being MVP.” Mina, the pink skinned girl said.
“I liked Iida's manliness in embracing his villain role!” Kirishima said and made a fist in the air.
“Also good points.” All Might said and looked at them all. “It was a fast round. Should we review it and...”
“No!” Uraraka exclaimed and then snapped her mouth shut in embarrassment. “I mean, there's no point in watching it again. It was pretty clear that they caught us flat-footed with their surprise attack and we were just reacting to their plan the entire time.”
“It's true. We never expected an assault through the roof of the building. It was quite the ingenious plan.” Iida said, his praise reluctant.
“It was risky as well.” Todoroki offered. “What if they were standing in the middle of the room?”
“We would have attacked the corner.” Tanya said and everyone looked at her. “We knew exactly where our targets were.”
“How?” He asked, genuinely curious.
“That would be telling our secrets for no gain.” Tanya said with a smirk.
The other students fell into a discussion about that as Izuku felt someone's hand touch his back. He turned his head slightly and expected Tanya, only to see Toru, the Invisible Girl, lean in close.
“It's also how you can see me, isn't it?” Toru whispered.
“Yes.” Izuku whispered back.
“Can you tell me what I look like?”
Izuku smiled slightly. “You have shoulder length dirty blonde hair, nice caring eyes, and cute cheeks that dimple when you smile.”
Toru blushed at his description and ducked her head a little. She really appreciated that he hadn't said he liked her boobs or that he could see all of her. “Izuku, you don't know what...”
“I know.” Izuku cut her off and she looked up at his face, startled. “I know what it's like for people to look at you and then look right through you as if you weren't really there.”
“Oh, Izuku.” Toru whispered and glanced at Tanya, then she smiled and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. “You only need a few more girls to do that and then you will have collected kisses from every girl in class.”
“If that's true, I'm surprised Uraraka hasn't done it yet. I already saved her life. What else does she want me to do?” Izuku joked.
Toru chuckled softly and gave him another quick peck on the cheek. “You can have that until I subtly remind her later.”
“Please don't slap her upside the head.” Izuku whispered, which made her close her mouth to stop her laugh. He could see her eyes dancing with mirth, however.
Toru nodded slightly and walked back over to where she had stood before and discreetly slipped her big gloves back on and put her feet back into her empty boots. No one even realized that she had crossed the room.
“Whatever! This conversation is going nowhere! Who's going next?” Bakugo asked.
“I'll draw the lots.” All Might said and the next four students left to go have their epic battle over a fake bomb.
The others watched through the monitors and a few of them complained again that there was no sound.
“Why is that?” Izuku asked.
“Hmm?” All Might looked over to him.
“Why is there no sound? We have high quality digital video and not even low quality audio?”
“I don't really know.” All Might said.
“I mean, even a short range walkie-talkie would work from there to here.” Izuku said. “It's really weird that the entire place isn't wired for everything. Now I wonder if all of the facilities that the school uses has any audio at all and are only wired for video.”
“I don't know if there's any way we can test for that.” Tanya mused as she considered it. “We can't go setting off EMPs to destroy any hidden cameras, can we?”
Izuku smiled. “We could.”
“Please refrain from causing damage to school facilities.” All Might said.
“Do they have cameras in the classrooms?” Momo asked.
“That depends on if they care about student conduct.” Iida said and rubbed his chin. “I've yet to see anyone be admonished for certain behavior.”
“It's just a stupid desk! My feet didn't hurt it!” Bakugo exclaimed. “It's made for the hero course! Did you even look at it? It's reinforced steel and is painted to look like wood!”
That made everyone's chuckles stop at his observational skills. None of them bothered to examine the desks at all and just assumed they were normal desks. Everyone except Izuku and Tanya, that is.
“He's right, you know.” Izuku said. “It might be a bit disrespectful; but, it didn't hurt the desk. If students like Kirishima and Tetsutetsu with hardening quirks can use them without damaging them, a pair of sneakers won't even scratch them.”
“Who's Tetsutetsu? He sounds manly!” Kirishima asked.
“He's in Class 1-B.” Tanya said. “We haven't gotten much more about the class besides their names and what quirks the ones that were in our exam group had.”
“What does he become?” Kirishima asked as he morphed into his hardened form that almost looked like jagged rocks.
“A steel-like substance.” Izuku said. “I don't think it's actually steel, just like you aren't actually rock. It just looks that way.” He said and nodded slightly at Bakugo, letting the other teen know he provided the example on purpose.
“Thanks, you bastard.” Bakugo whispered, which made Izuku grin.
The rest of the students had their battles and returned to the control room for analysis and debate over the MVPs of each match. Strategies were dissected and other ideas offered to change the odds and potential to snatch victory from defeat. The funny thing was, Toru was the quickest to get the bomb and no one knew she had even passed the villains. While the others were debating what they actually saw, Izuku walked over to the Invisible Girl.
“Nice going, Toru. The villains had no clue that you went in with them.” Izuku complimented.
“Thanks.” Toru said and she wasn't sure what to do about getting so much praise. She also wasn't sure why it meant so much more coming from Izuku.
“Your quirk is one of the best I've seen.” Izuku said with a smirk, which made her laugh.
“You haven't seen me at my best yet.” Toru said, almost suggestively, and posed with her gloved hands on her hips.
“I look forward to it.” Izuku replied.
“All right, class! That's it for today! You all did very well!” All Might said and ignored the three glares from Momo, Mina, and Todoroki's partner in their match. “Get cleaned up and changed before you board the bus!”
The students filed out and Tanya and Izuku walked side by side.
“You spent a bit of time with Toru this afternoon.” Tanya whispered.
“She looked a little lost. Almost like me when we met, to be honest.” Izuku whispered back and they stopped to let the others enter the changing rooms and showers. He told her everything that he and Toru said to each other and their reactions.
Tanya had to nod in agreement that it seemed the Invisible Girl suffered a different kind of ostracization than Izuku, and yet, the results were the same. “You want to be her friend?”
“I think I already am.” Izuku said. “I'm also sure that she's going to be a bit more outgoing with the other girls in our class, now that she's among her actual peers and not children.”
Tanya smirked at him. “Do you really think a kiss on your cheek is that much of a confidence boost?”
“You tell me.” Izuku said and kissed her cheek to make her blush a little. “See you in a few minutes.”
Tanya nodded and watched him walk into the boys side of the changing rooms. She admired his muscular form, shook her head at that odd thought, and went into the girl's changing room.
“Wasn't Izuku awesome?” Mina, the pink skinned girl asked as she folded her tights into the carrying case. “I've never seen anyone look so cool!”
“I wonder if we can get a copy of the video?” Toru asked. “It sucks there was no audio, though.”
“I have it.” Tanya said and all of the girls turned to look at her. Momo, Jiro, Mina, Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Toru stared at her with surprise on their faces.
“How? Izuku said...”
Tanya reached up and tapped her ear and then touched her collar. “Earpiece and microphone. It picks up everything in a certain area.” She said and unbuttoned her blazer.
“I'll petition for the footage right away.” Momo said and used her phone to quickly type up the proper request and sent it. They all stood there for several tense seconds, then her phone beeped. “Yes! We can have it for review purposes!”
“I'm pretty good at audio matching.” Toru offered. “I had to learn it years ago because... well...”
“It's hard to match sound to video when you can't really see the subject material.” Tanya said and the girl nodded. “I can have the audio file ready by tonight.”
“This is going to be great!” Uraraka said and walked over to the group showers as she slipped off her towel. “Our performances were pretty awesome.”
“I only have the audio for the one match.” Tanya said and put her blazer into the case beside her rifle. She added the ear piece and then took off her shirt.
“Why do you always wear a shirt and not a blouse?” Mina asked as she took off her panties, checked to see if they were soiled, and tossed them into the dirty laundry part of the case.
“Honestly? I'm used to the way they button.” Tanya said and all of the girls looked surprised. “I'm also not one for frills, skirts, or dresses.”
“I think you would look awesome if you did dress up.” Uraraka said and started the water. She hit the soap dispenser and lathered up quickly. Mina went to the shower beside her and did the same.
“It would shock Izuku.” Toru said as she walked over to a shower and turned it on.
“That's why I don't do it.” Tanya admitted and took her pants and underwear off. “It's difficult enough for Izuku that I'm a tomboy and he can't stop staring at my ass. If I dressed up like a girl even once...”
That made the other girls laugh pretty loudly before they all went to the showers to get cleaned up.